GWTW the novel was published in 1936 and was a gigantic bestseller. Every nugget of info about the movie was devoured by the public and the movie itself was eagerly anticipated. Sort of how it was with Twilight, huge fanbase who could not wait to see the movie.
BTW there was a book by Garson Kanin called Moviola that was made into a miniseries in the early 80s. As I recall there were 3 2-hour segments that focused on 3 different time periods. The miniseries was later broken into 3 separate movies that were syndicated as stand alone movies. The middle and best segment was a behind the scenes drama about the crazy casting battle over the part of Scarlett. I remember seeing it a couple of times and enjoying it. It's called "The Scarlett O'hara Wars" IIRC. No idea if it's on DVD or what. And I have no memory of the other 2 segments even tho I read the book and watched the miniseries!